Franchising Principles To Scale Your Business Without Having To Franchise - Part 1
Did you know that even if you’re not a franchisor or franchisee, you can use franchising principles to grow your business? That’s right! You can scale your business using franchising without franchising it! This is one of the best-kept secrets when it comes to maximising your business.
We will be doing a few part article series on this and to start off we are going to share a few tips as they relate to your Intellectual Property.
Do You Know Your IP?
One of the biggest parts of franchising is IP (Intellectual Property). Intellectual property is a category of property that includes tangible and intangible creations of the human intellect, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; symbols, names, and images used in business.
The main types of IP in business: include patents, trademarks, design, copyrights, and trade secrets – which can be very valuable assets, whose value if properly managed and protected can increase with time.
A fact not known by many is that what you think you own you may not. Many a person has been caught unaware when they thought they owned IP they had paid for someone else to do but they only had a limited license to use instead.
Doing an IP Audit and setting up an IP Register is one of the tactics we do with our clients to both protect, increase value and create opportunities for expansion in their business.
Is your IP Protected?
Connected with the above, you not only need to know what makes up your IP, but to get the best value and opportunities, you need to also ensure it is protected.
Protecting your IP is not just for franchisors– anyone can take appropriate measures to protect their IP legally, to prevent others from wrongly profiting from your creations or what you have paid good money to get done. Not only will knowing your IP and understanding your options around it protect your brand, but it will also increase your unique value in the market.
Part of this protection is doing the IP Audit and setting up an IP Register, but depending on the particular IP we are dealing with you may need to ensure:
1. your contracts have terms that deal with for example initial and ongoing ownership (including in any new developments) as well as restrictions and rights around use;
2. you have NDAs in place – an NDA – a non-disclosure agreement – may sound like a scary thing, but they are actually quite useful. A non-disclosure agreement is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes but wish to restrict access to. This means you can use NDAs to be sure you aren’t losing your ideas when dealing with others!
3. Registration may also be needed (Trade Marks, Design, Patents), noting that it can take time to get registration through so you want to start earlier to get protection or to know you are going to have issues before you spend too much on something you are going to have to change.
4. Intellectual Property Terms and Disclaimers are in place;
Another quick fact – business name registration or registering a company name does not provide you with brand protection.
Do You Have An IP Strategy?
If not, you need one. Strategies are important when it comes to retaining money and bringing it in, as well as for the sectors of marketing, merchandising, and operations. Having a strategy is important for any business – big or small – to ascertain the goals that you want to reach instead of blindly taking action and hoping for the best.
You don’t just have to stick to the status quo. Use the idea of franchising principles to grow your business!
Please note that this is a general and brief update, it does not purport to be comprehensive legal advice of all information and/or relevant to your circumstances. Consequently, specific legal advice for each of your circumstances should be obtained first before taking or not taking any action with respect to this area.